How to Tell True Stories, Out Loud with Nicholas Garnett & Esther Martinez-Kenniff

The stories presented at Lip Service—Miami’s showcase for true stories presented out loud—are personal, heartfelt, and honest. This eight-week course, presented by Lip Service co-producers Esther Martinez-Kenniff and Nicholas Garnett, will show you how to identify, create, and present meaningful personal stories.

You’ll learn:

What qualifies as a story.

How to identify which of your personal stories have what it takes to make a great story.

How to structure a story for clarity and emotional impact.

The differences and similarities between writing for the page and the stage.

Editing and performance techniques that immerse and engage an audience.

Each student will have the opportunity to present a final, edited story in front of their classmates and instructors. Participants will receive valuable feedback at each phase of the process, from story inception to final presentation.

Instructions for Students: Please come to the first class with an idea for a story you’d like to work on during the course. If you some ideas to get you going, consider the following prompts:

Write about an experience where your cravings had consequences

Tell us where it hurts

Write about the day everything changed

What would you do over if you could?

I shouldn’t have done it, but I did

A graduate of Florida International University’s MFA program, Nicholas Garnett is a freelance writer, editor, and teacher. His writing has appeared in, among other places, Salon, Best Sex Writing of 2013, and as the title stories for two anthologies, All That Glitters, and Badass: True Stories, The Double Album.

Esther Martinez has a BA in Literature Writing from Columbia University and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Florida International University. Her work has appeared in the anthology Badass: True Stories, The Double Album, in Pan ‘Ku, Quarto, The Columbia Observer, Sliver of Stone, The Daily Beast, and Newsday, as well as on NPR and PBS.